The Social Community

Building communities through social innovation

By Robin Low

Need for Social Innovation

• There are many social problems. Most are more complex than it seems and when solutions come from one discipline or simply focused on “patching” the problem, the problem rarely gets solved and often becomes more complex as time goes by.

Social Innovation

• Social innovation is the best construct for understanding and producing lasting social change. However, not everything is considered social innovation. Many organizations, including social enterprises are merely doing "social fixing" as innovation may require a more drastic, cross disciplinary solution to dissect the problem and creation of various models to test the solution.

A definition of social innovation

“We contend that social innovation is the best construct for understanding and producing

lasting social change. We redefine social innovation to mean: A novel solution to a social

problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable or just than existing solutions and

for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private

individuals.”

Source: Phills, Deiglmeier, and Miller (2008)

A definition of social entrepreneurship

• Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value

• Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission

• Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning

• Acting boldly without being limited to resources currently at hand

• Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served

Ways to Solve a Social Problem

1) NGOs / Government - Mission Driven Way

Funds can be raised, the government can set up departments and fund social projects.

Government like large scale projects, focusing on equity. Funds used are accountable to voters. Slow moving & takes a long time to implement.

NGOs are shaped by beliefs & values. Projects tend to be responsive to the board, community, donors and the public. It is also mission driven and operate under a non-distribution constraint.

Ways to Solve a Social Problem

1. Corporations – Profit Driven Way

Lots of funds can be accessed to solve social problems.

Corporations like large scale projects that make lots of profits. Funds need to be accountable to shareholders. Can move fast when necessary.

Corporations are profit driven and focus to create shareholder value and not social impact.

Social Entrepreneurs

• Search for new ways of solving old problems

• Changemakers willing to take risks and drive innovation

• Collaborate with business, nonprofit and government

Social Entrepreneurs

4 main criteria:

• Innovation

• Financial Sustainability

• Impact

• Scale

Mission and money are balanced

Takes the best of “both worlds”Goal: to create innovative, sustainable, effective, and scalable solutions to social problem

"As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature: self-interest and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses

self-interest in helpful sustainable ways, but only on behalf of those who can pay. Philanthropy and

government aid channel our caring for those who can’t pay, but the resources run out before they meet the

need… To provide…for the poor we need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better

way….I like to call this system creative capitalism…."

- B. Gates

Communities

• Marginalized communities are not helpless communities.

• There is untapped human capacity.

• Communities are capable to solve their own problems in the long run.

• People in similar communities can benefit from their solutions.

Never Help:

Engage

Enable

Empower

Connect

Empowering Communities

• Training marginalized communities to view problems as opportunities.

• These communities know their problems and environment most.

• When local solutions are found, scaling to other areas can be done to benefit many others.

• Resources can be directed at other problems once communities can be independent.

Building Social Communities

• Helping marginalized communities is continuous.

• Donations to marginalized communities have one life, once used, more donations are needed.

• Empowering communities that support themselves will be a sustainable way to bring more options to the community.

"Social entrepreneurs are…the practical dreamers who have the talent and the skill and the vision to solve problems [and] to change the world….Social

entrepreneurs have a unique approach that is both evolutionary and revolutionary, operating in free

markets where success is measured not just in financial profit but also in the improvement of the

quality of people’s lives."

-- Skoll Foundation

Social Entrepreneurs within the Community

• Marginalized people are not stupid.

• They may lack knowledge, connections and money.

• There are always innovators in the community that want to take action.

• They understand the local problem more than anyone else.

• Their solutions may inspire others in the communities and help other communities.

Social Communities

• If people from the communities can create sustainable businesses and hire others from the communities, jobs opportunities can be created.

– Example of communities

• Ex-convicts

• Racial groups

• Physically handicapped

• etc

How it works

• Train interested members in the community in entrepreneurship mindsets, lean startup methodologies, bootstrap financing and design thinking.

• Look for successful businessmen from the community (i.e. ex-convicts who run successful businesses) to be mentors or provide business loans to people in the community who want to start businesses that hire others in the community.

Ongoing Trial 1

Entrepreneurship Training

Najayo Correctional Facility(Dominican Republic)

Inmates (both male and female) sign up for training.

After learning concepts, they work on prototypes and test assumptions.

If their business hires other inmates, (when they are out of prison), they are paired with ex-convict mentors who may give them business loans.

Ongoing Trial 2

Project Ada (Singapore)

iOS programming training for Ex-prisoners

Goal: Get them to become freelancers to supplement income. (Not give them jobs)

Integrate them into the programming community. (Ex-prisoners -> Programmers)

In return, the newly trained freelance programmers can be mentors to new ex-prisoners interested to learn iOS programming.

Ongoing Trial 3

Relief 2.0 Enterprise

Running Entrepreneurship bootcamp for disaster survivors.

When people buy products made by these entrepreneurs, it is conscious buying instead of donations.

These entrepreneurs can support themselves with dignity.

Starting Communities

If you know of a marginalized community, instead of donations, there may be other ways of giving the people options to support themselves.

If you believe that some of them may benefit from entrepreneurship, and can create businesses that hire others in the community to create more opportunities.